Demanding or Deferring? An Experimental Analysis of the Economic Value of Communication with Attitude

31 Pages Posted: 11 Dec 2015 Last revised: 17 Apr 2019

See all articles by Siyu Wang

Siyu Wang

Wichita State University - W. Frank Barton School of Business - Department of Economics

Daniel Houser

Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science

Date Written: December 9, 2015

Abstract

Research has shown that natural language communication is more effective than intention-signaling in promoting coordination. Our paper studies the reasons behind this finding. We hypothesize that, when communicating with natural language, people use and respond to both intentions and attitudes, with attitude indicating the strength of a message sender’s desire to have her message followed. We test our hypothesis using controlled laboratory experiments. We find that: (i) free-form messages include both signaled intentions and attitudes; (ii) people respond to both intentions and attitudes when making decisions; and (iii) the use of attitude in natural language messages significantly improves coordination.

Keywords: communication, coordination, experiment, attitude, gender

Suggested Citation

Wang, Siyu and Houser, Daniel, Demanding or Deferring? An Experimental Analysis of the Economic Value of Communication with Attitude (December 9, 2015). GMU Working Paper in Economics No. 15-57, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2701558 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2701558

Siyu Wang (Contact Author)

Wichita State University - W. Frank Barton School of Business - Department of Economics ( email )

Wichita, KS 67260-0078
United States

Daniel Houser

Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science ( email )

5th Floor, Vernon Smith Hall
George Mason University
Arlington, VA 22201
United States
7039934856 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://mason.gmu.edu/~dhouser/

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